4.6

This was the magnitude of the Earthquake that hit last night, nothing big. No damage. All is well. Kind of . . .

The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind.

-It started last night with a woman who was screaming so loudly outside our gate I was sure she was in labor. I sent the guard out to check it out and he could not find her, but the screaming stopped.

-Then the gun fire started. Just a few times, not too close.

-Then the earthquake. Justin who has been through a few in his life was unimpressed. It was my first and I was quite impressed.

- Then first thing this morning we went to visit a girl named Megan, whom I think is the next Mother Theresa. She is 25, left everything and came to Haiti to start a school. I owe this situation a really long post...Later.

- We stopped on the way home to use the bathroom at Justin's work. His boss came in and said they were going to close down early because there were supposed to be demonstrations near the capitol soon. Mind you we had just driven by the capitol and I was again grateful to God for our timing.

The thing about Haiti is that everything is rumor. There is no paparazzi here. And while I am not always a fan of the media in the States, I missed it today. Here are some of the rumors-

* Aristide's (the former president who was basically kicked out of office) return. It is also rumored that he will soon be arrested for crimes he committed while President. From an article demonstrations are planned for March 8, a day to honor women worldwide; the 18th, the anniversary of Aristide's return; and the 29th, the day Haiti signed its constitution in 1987.

* Martelly (the current President) is going to retire because he has dual citizenship. This proved not to be a true rumor as he held a press conference today showing passports proving he was in fact only a Haitian citizen, see this article.

* Martelly is going to give parliament an ultimatum either he quit or they do. After the Prime Minister quit recently he has not been able to get another one passed by parliament. So, still the government is on hold. I can only pray that they will work this out and the rumors about someone having to quit, which would further complicate the situation here, are not true.

* There have been recent political assassinations. Apparently in conjunction with the rumored arrest of Aristide some key witnesses have been killed. Again I have no idea.

* 2 Senators resigned today one saying that people need to stay off the street after 4pm today because there was going to be mass rioting. Again hope it is not true, but I really have no way of knowing. I do know our day security guard wanted to go home early and our night one called to make sure Justin was home and we were not going anywhere. Friends who live here say not to get too worried, to just stock up and stay in. Which is exactly what we plan to do.

Apparently sometimes there is widespread rioting and while we do not live near PAP and really don't know about a lot that goes on there unless we read it online later, it is always better to be safe than sorry. I really do not feel that the people around our house would be outright malicious to us, but I am not sure it is wise to be out when people are so obviously angry and frustrated. And I am not sure I can blame them for being angry & frustrated. Although I am hardly the person to ask, I don't feel that I even know enough about US politics to comment on them let alone Haitian. Another thing I am learning needs to change when we return.